A national research program for biological medicines

This report describes the results and lessons learned from the government assignment on Biological medicines that Vinnova and the Swedish Research Council received in December 2015.

The assignment was about the design of a national programme for protein research, method development of biological drugs and has spanned the period 2016–2023. The program has financed 35 project and three centers and has included a total of SEK 320 million.

The program has led to high-quality research and innovation that contributes to the development and improved production methods of biological medicines. In addition, the investment in the program has had a good return as the co-financing and investments from business have been large. This shows that the area is a high priority for business.

The program illustrates the value of collaboration between academia, business and healthcare and points out that healthcare needs to be involved to a large extent if biological medicines are to be implemented and benefit patients.

Because collaboration requires both time and resources, research and innovation programs need to run over a longer period of time, especially if the investment is expected to lead to implementation. The program has been evaluated by Sweco.